The New York Rangers opener is finally here! Tonight the Rangers will take on the New York Islanders to kick off their 94th season. The last time the number 94 was attached to a season it ended pretty well for the blueshirts.
Lets breakdown what to expect tonight:
The Match up
This is the opening night for both the Rangers and the Islanders. The Rangers last played on August 4th after getting swept by Carolina in the opening round of the NHL playoff bubble. The Islanders last played September 17th when they were eliminated by Tampa Bay in Game 6 of the Eastern Conference Finals. The Rangers won three of the four meetings with the Islanders last year. The last one was a thrilling overtime win thanks to this rocket by Mika Zibanejad.
Islanders Game Notes
Mathew Barzal the Islanders star forward ended a short hold out and resigned a new three year deal during training camp. Barzal has been a thorn in the Rangers side since he entered the league. In 12 career games against them, he has 18 points. Isles coach Barry Trotz has announced Semyon Varlamov will start in goal tonight. This means we will have to wait to see highly regarded goaltending prospect Ilya Sorokin. The rest of the Islanders lineup looks mostly the same from their Conference Championship appearance last year.
Rangers Game Notes
Rangers coach David Quinn announced last night that he expects Mika Zibanejad to be in the lineup tonight. We found out that Mika’s training camp debut was delayed due to a positive COVID test. Quinn also announced that Igor Shesterkin will be the starting goaltender tonight. Igor exploded on the scene last year winning 10 of his 12 starts in his first taste of the NHL. Tonight is also the NHL debut of young phenom Alexis Lafreniere. Since the Rangers ping pong ball came up for the number one pick, Rangers fans have been dreaming about Lafreniere in a Rangers jersey and tonight we get our first look. Only two things to look out for when the line up comes out. Will it be Di Giuseppe or Rooney on the fourth line and will it be Johnson or Smith suited up on defense.
Miscellaneous Notes
The Rangers for the third straight season will not have a captain. Yesterday the team announced they will have four alternate captains. Chris Krieder and Mika Zibanejad will continue their roles as alternates. Jacob Trouba will wear an A this year. Trouba filled in a few times as an alternate last year when injuries occurred. The last A will be Artemi Panarin. The Breadman gets the honor after a monster first season with the Rangers, putting up 95 points in just 69 games last year.
Tonight a new goaltender will start on opening night for the Rangers for the first time since 2005-06 (Kevin Weeks). Henrik Lundqvist had started 14 straight from 2006-07 to 2019-20. The only goaltender in NHL history with a longer streak of consecutive starts than Lundqvist is Martin Brodeur. Brodeur started 18 consecutive openers for the Devils.
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